LA PLATA, Md. (Jan. 23, 2008)—The Charles County Sheriffs Office activated a special alert that helped locate an endangered elderly woman who had wandered from her home on Monday while her husband was sleeping.

Sheriffs officers had responded to a residence in the 7300 block of Oliver Shop Road in Hughesville at 11:24 p.m. for the report of a missing woman. The woman, 71, has dementia and had been missing for about an hour. Officers searched the area and at 12:05 a.m., with 21-degree temperatures outside, the Sheriffs Office activated an A Child is Missing (ACIM) alert.

A Child is Missing is a nationwide non-profit organization that helps law enforcement agencies locate missing children, missing elderly who are often suffering from Alzheimers, college students on campus and missing persons who are mentally or physically challenged. ACIM, which is based in Florida, is a free service for law enforcement nationwide. ACIM has been credited by law enforcement for more than 325 safe assisted recoveries.

When a child or endangered adult in Charles County is missing, the Sheriffs Office calls ACIM and provides the information to a technician who records a message with the missing persons information. The message is sent to the telephones of homes and businesses in the area, alerting citizens of the situation and asking them to call the Sheriffs Office if they find the missing person. Using a sophisticated mapping system and trained technicians, ACIM can place 1,000 alert phone calls in 60 seconds to an area where a missing person was last seen or is believed to be.

Soon after the alert was made on Jan. 21, a woman at a residence about an eighth of a mile away who received one of the phone calls heard a knock at her door. She saw the missing woman, brought her inside. The Sheriffs Office was notified and the woman was returned home safe.

This is exactly how this program is supposed to work, said Sheriff Rex Coffey. Because of her health and the below-freezing temperatures, we needed to find her quickly and we did because of this system and a concerned neighbor. This program works because people in our community care.